The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Rhododendron plant, botanically known as Rhododendron simsii×Rhododendron linearifolia, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Fuji’.
The new Rhododendron plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Paterswolde, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Rhododendron varieties having unique and attractive leaf and flower forms.
The new Rhododendron plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in April, 2001, in Paterswolde, The Netherlands, of
Rhododendron simsii ‘Terra Nova’, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed proprietary selection of Rhododendron linearifolia, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Rhododendron was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Paterswolde, The Netherlands in 2003.
Asexual reproduction of the new Rhododendron plant by terminal cuttings taken in a controlled environment in Paterswolde, The Netherlands since 2004 has shown that the unique features of this new Rhododendron plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.